Second charter school proposal won't get reviewed

The SUNY Board of Trustees has opted not to review a proposal for a second charter school in Utica.

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Posted Jun. 2, 2014 at 11:53 AM

Posted Jun. 2, 2014 at 11:53 AM

Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi announced today that the application from the Mohawk Valley Community Charter School for a school in Utica is not among the latest round of proposals that will be reviewed beginning this week by the SUNY Board of Trustees.

“This was not an effort to stifle the Charter School movement; it simply reflects the fact that the overburdened Utica School District cannot afford losing over a million dollars a year to fund another Charter School,” Brindisi said. “The district faces increasing enrollments, a large number of high needs and ESL students, and has had to cut staff in recent years; this was the wrong idea at the wrong time for Utica.”

The Mohawk Valley Community Charter School Board had proposed opening a K through one school in Utica in the fall of 2015, and then expanding it to a K through five school by the fifth year. The Charter School board has the option of formally withdrawing its application before Wednesday’s meeting of the SUNY Charter School Committee, but State Education Department officials said today they have not received a request from the group yet. In recent weeks, officials with the SUNY Charter School Institute have reviewed proposals to establish new Charter Schools in New York for recommendation to the SUNY Board of Trustees.